Karla's Cottage

A buddy day

A dear and talented friend has art hanging at the Sabatini Gallery in Topeka, so we planned a day out to go see it.

Between my husband traveling for business, missing our annual RV/dog adventure to the beach, and plain old having a case of the I Hate Januaries, I was ready for fixing up and getting out!  I even polished my nails  - all of them!  Including the ones buried in wool socks inside Ugg boots. (Except they aren’t really Ugg boots, Costco has their own version for a fraction of the cost that I like even better than the high dollar ones)

Our first stop was meeting at Jen’s.  She still had her Christmas goodies up and we hadn’t seen them.  She wanted to show us her friend and family display.

There were handmade ornies from her artist friends, things she or her daughter made, and pieces created at our holiday craft days over the decades.

This is one I’d painted of her dog, Cage, after he passed.

And one from the year I was a featured artist at the Festival of Trees.  It was special to see decorations I’d made so long ago, lots of happy memories were tied up in them.

I should’ve gotten a photo of the whole display.  She has them tied to a lit garland above a window seat.

Our friend, Shan, whose work we were going to Topeka to see, also hosts craft days in her studio.  Every Thursday she invites us to do mosaics with her.  This is a little house Jen made at one of those get togethers.

The gallery show was impressive, and I thought Shanna’s piece was just plain old delightful.  Not only was I proud to see a good friend’s work hanging in a show that was filled with glass artists from all over the country (including Dale Chihuly!) I thought her piece really stood out in its dual design, the glass itself and the wall behind it.

Our day in Topeka included more than just Art.  We went for a drive in the country to see the old farmstead where Jen spent her childhood, went out for lunch, and did some junking.  Even with the bleak, washed out, Kansas in January scenes around us, it was a warm and colorful day. 

I love my friends and the years we have had together!

Glass ornaments as mini carafes

We had our annual holiday bookclub dinner at the cottage last week.  

As I usually do, I set the table with a hodge podge of mismatched pieces, but with kind of a theme.  And I tried a cute trick I’d seen at another party, using a clear glass ball as a mini carafe.

The way I’d seen it done was at a wine tasting and they used small, plastic ornaments. I really don’t know if those are food safe.  So, I bought the big glass ones (at Hobby Lobby on clearance for 60% off), washed them well, and glued on roses that I’d painted onto old sheet music.

At our party, I make the food and friends bring the wine, so I couldn’t pre-fill the balls with wine like the previous way I’d seen them used.  So I decided to use them for water, sitting on a glass of ice. 

Before everyone arrived, I poured one into a cup, to see if it really was a good idea or was just messy.  

Well, so so.

I had over filled the balls, and when pouring the water over the ice I realized that there was just too much in them.  And no where to set the balls down except right back on top of the glass, or they would roll away and flood the table.  

Oops!

 I quickly poured some water out of each ball, leaving just the right amount for the glass.  Ha, I’m glad I checked!

After dinner, the ornaments were party favors to take home.  


I should’ve made everyone take food home too, I made way, way too much.  As usual. I ended up putting this pie in the freezer for when the family comes home for Christmas.  And I served some of the cupcakes at another party. Oh, and I did manage to take care of the rest of the extra cupcakes.  

Somebody had to, right?

A few days after the book club bash, I was hosting a craft day get together.  And the day after that, Sugarwings was supposed to have a cocoa party, but it was cancelled due to an ear infection, poor kid.

Typically, I like to have all of my parties in the same week, so I only have to clean the house once.  And as I take plates out of the dishwasher, I reset the table so it’s ready to go for the next event. The cottage has a festive feel all week when it is party time.  

For the craft day party, I did use wine in the Christmas balls.

Which, come to think of it, probably makes them harder to rinse out if they are meant to be keepsakes. I am not sure if I’ll do this party trick again or not.  I enjoyed it, and thought it made the table festive.  I hope the guests enjoyed it too.

 

Bad Girls Christmas

Our annual Bad Girls’ Christmas was again hosted by Angie, in her serene palace in the sky.  It’s on the 8th floor and overlooks the KC Plaza, a wonderful view.

She is a caring hostess with attention to every detail. Everything there is always just perfect there.  Well, everything but my blurry photos.

This one was a bit blurry too, but you can still see the fun!

She lives near Kaufman Gardens so we walk over to see the holiday displays.  It feels good to be surrounded by blooms on a chilly, winter day.  

I brought gifts, Beth loves buttons.

Angie always picks up autumn leaves.

She went all Julia Childs on us and served Beef Bourgignon, and oh man, it was good.  But I’m afraid everyone had to listen to me do my (very poor) Julia imitation too many times.  

I am blessed with the friends I have.  And I know how lucky I am.  When Rich and I were first married, his job uprooted us a lot.  And I had two small boys, one who struggled pretty severely with some disabilities. Those guys both  kept me busy, and between always being new in town, and needing to be with the kids, I didn’t meet many people.

Ryan grew into a delightful, caring, witty man, but his childhood was not easy for him.  I think that his little body could not keep up with his mind, and his frustration about making himself understood, or to do what he wanted caused a lot of turmoil.  


Speaking of Ryan, I felt like I had a surprise visit from him!  An article I was reading mentioned street view on Google maps, and I’d never looked at our home there.  So I pulled it up, and there he was- mowing the field and getting some sunshine.

At first it was shock to see him, but after a moment, I felt a warmth of happiness, almost as if I’d looked out the window and caught a glimpse of him.

After finishing a scrapbook of my pictures of Ryan, I came across something I wanted to add to it with another photo on it.  Then it hit me.

I would never take another picture of my boy.  

So finding this one online was a Christmas gift!

He is always with me, and in my heart.  But I sure miss seeing him on that mower.  Or walking down the sidewalk. Or gleefully throwing his head back in laughter.

Losing a loved one, plus having had those early years of struggle, and loneliness without close friends, makes me even more appreciative of having good friends now.

 I treasure our times together.

At Marilyn’s Beauty Filled House

Recently, I met a new friend.

She invited some of us over to her home for lunch and to see her collections.

And oh my, what collections she has!

Her home left me speechless.  Which is good, because I am still having glitches with my blog hosting site.  So I will just stop talking and show you photos of her lovelies.

Enjoy!

 

The Beauty at Bridgerton

I am home from a varied and jam packed full of fun trip.

And speaking of jam packed- you should have seen my luggage!

I started my journey flying to Asheville, then hiking with my baby boy, then off to Charleston in a rental car  for Jenn Hayslip’s Bridgerton event.  I had one bag filled with kits to teach a class.

Plus my normal supplies to take my pal, Lori Oles’ class, as well as a selection of items to sell, and even more supplies for projects to work on at the beach.

Siesta Key was the final flight of my trip, off to see my sissies.

My two, overly stuffed, giant pieces of luggage and equally bulging carryon had to include warm clothes for the mountains, dress up things for the art event, and beachy outfits. Along with kits, supplies, wares for the market, and little gifties.

All I can say is thank goodness that suitcases have wheels.  Even if they don’t like thresholds and rolling onto elevators , those wheels made the juggling of all those bags possible.

Still, even with all that packing, I screwed up.  I didn’t pack proper attire for the big party.  I brought a dress, but it wasn’t fancy enough.  So, the kind hostess, who also has multiple, amazing, to die for closets full of gorgeousness, had me try on her clothing until we found something that could work on a grandma attending a ball.  

Jenn’s wardrobe is suitable for being the bell of the ball every day of her life and it was a joy to be invited to play in those closets!  Here is what she wore.  And the dress she loaned to Lori.  Neither one of us packed right.

Everyone else brought their finest gowns!  Oh my, the dresses were lovely.

Looked at this beauty! Wow!

Jenn’s adorable husband got it right and was a great sport while looking cute as can be.

Jennifer does not miss one detail when it comes to making every aspect of her events perfect.

So I felt bad about letting her down with my lack of fabulousness.

But that kind hearted lady was gracious and generous about finding a fix for my attire.

I felt very pampered instead of embarrassed by the way she handled my faux pas.

Everything about being in this luxurious home was pampering. 

And beautiful.

Simply, delightfully, beautiful.

I could’ve just wandered around and gawked all day, the home was that pretty.  Lori and I wanted to play a drinking game, where every time we heard someone say the word PRETTY, we would take a shot.  But, since I am a very bad drinker and have never done a shot in my life, I’d have lost quickly.  I’m more of a wine sipper.

Every city that I visited and all the people I saw, made for such a lovely adventure.  I’ll leave you more pictures of Jenn’s perfectly detailed and pretty, pretty, pretty party for now, and will have more about the rest of my travels later.

Cheers!

Dolly do-overs

The Halloween witches and zombies that I showed you previously started out with a bag of old dolls.  I sorted them into categories-

• beyond repair became zombies
• sorta bad shape, witches (if the skin was messed up, I repainted them green like Elphaba)
• decent shape, but needed work, angels

It is not even Halloween yet, but I zipped through my ghoulish gals in time to take into Good Juju’s September and October sales am now sparkling up some angelic babies for the November First Friday.

This one is actually a tree topper from the 60s.  Her base is a cone to fit on a Christmas tree.  I reused her wings on the smaller girl and made new ones for her from curled feathers.  Both had their hair replaced with wool roving.

My pal Tami invited us over for a craft day and offered styrofoam pumpkins to make over (mine is covered in lace) and tart tin dolls for the projects. I also whipped up my two angels and a few lil schroomies.

She went to a lot of trouble with her sleepy eyed doll.  It required sawing it in half, and gluing in a cork that was also cut in half to the doll could be put back together with the tin in the center.  

The tin makes a cute skirt top, doesn’t it?  Thanks, Tami, for the fun day filled with lovely projects!

A special celebration in the country

Isn’t this deliciousness just beautiful?  Well, EVERYTHING at Julie’s house was.  Don’t ask me why I didn’t take more pictures, because I just don’t know. 

I am kicking myself that I can’t share it all, every detail was more special than the one before.

From the moment we pulled into the drive.

The food, the displays, the home tour, the company, the gifts, well, on and on.  What a delightful day. We gathered to celebrate Tami’s birthday and her buddies, Nora and Julie hosted this delectable day of friendship.

Julie not only has a perfectly edited and designed farmhouse filled with vintage treasures, she has a she shed.  

And an event barn.  

And a pond.

And well thought collections.

And gorgeous landscaping.

Do you know what I had?  A camera that I barely used.

Here is a little bit of the event barn.

They host weddings and other parties there.  

We sat in the barn for our bird nest craft. Nora provided silver vessels to choose from and moss to form a nest.

That’s it on the photos for the day.  Take my word for it, absolutely everything was wonderful.  

A friend’s garden and thoughts on house colors

Diane’s home was on the garden tour last year, and all of their hard work still shows, it looks like it permanently belongs on the list.  

Before the event, some friends gathered to make mosaic stepping stones for it as a birthday gift for her.

The stones are interspersed with natural rock in the pathways.

The yard is laid out in such a welcoming design, it intrigues you to want see around the next corner.  As all great landscaping should.

There is just the right amount of sculpture and yard art to add to the ambiance and not be cluttered.  I tend to over do that and junk things up, but this yard has an understated elegance that I could probably never pull off.

The stained glass artwork hanging inside the window adds to the overall feeling of curated beauty too.

Sitting on the upper deck, drinking wine, and listening to the frogs in the pond is an ideal way to spend an evening.  Adding a tour on top of it? Perfection!

They are remodeling the decks soon and making them larger, then painting the house.  The cedar planks have always been stained in this natural look, but they are ready for a change.  My suggestion of color was a grayed blue.  Diane’s interior is filled with shades of blue, some more sky and aqua, but enough different varieties of blue that I can tell it’s her favorite.  And at our regular mosaic parties, she tends to go for the blue pieces of glass. 

That said, blue can be tricky on an exterior of this style of house.  You don’t want to be too cute with it. There are some terra cotta bricks in the trim and chimney, natural stone around the house, with a roof similar to the stone color.  

The closest neighbor’s home to the right is a medium gray, the next is a sage gray, I think.  I can’t remember the color to the left, but there is an empty lot between, if that matters. 

In my opinion, the right shade of blue would be a good companion to the terra cotta bricks, and also compliment Diane’s airy personality, while fitting nicely with this neighborhood.  

While dark blue could also be a good choice, it seems to me like she needs a lighter, cheerier shade to reflect her more.  Now, I like the house in it’s dark, natural stain, and I’m sure a navy would look good too, but I’m still leaning more towards a light, softer shade.  Not true blue, but grayed and warmed a bit.

She has used blue accents throughout the the inside and outside of the home, so there is the thought that a color pulled from the landscaping stones would also give the house the lightness it deserves, while complimenting her blue touches and looking nice next to the terra cotta bricks.  

And the brick color could be a fine choice, but to me, not enough of a change.  Although, I’d pick that over a gray or a dark shade.

Of course, I love thinking about colors and this puzzle has kept me entertained.  I can’t wait to see what she picks.  What do you think?

I wish I’d gotten more photos of the yard and veggie garden, it was really a magical place to be on a pretty evening.  

A redo at Juju

 
I have been busy.  Way busy.

My upstairs spot at Good Juju was not quite the right fit for me.  Plus, my friends were downstairs and I wanted to be near them.  Beth offered to share, but I am not ready for a big space, so she offered me a sixth of her big area and that was just ideal! And she let me do some remodeling while she was on vacation.

She also got some solid walls added. Our friend, Sam, covered bare 2x4s with paneling so I could paint them, and I used some of the leftover colors to paint the back of this display too.

The new walls are neutral shades of blue, green and grey.  On the back wall, to cover an old garage door, we hung a 9x12 canvas and way up high, added some homemade grapevine wreaths.  I covered the table this hutch sits on with a burlap skirt and added a strip cut from a lace curtain across it so the bright light bulbs don’t bother anyone’s eyes with their glare.

Beth also offered to share this spot, it is her craft supply corner, and I added a few tidbits to the display after setting it up.

Here is Sam, hard at work, making the walls. They really add a lot to the area.

Here is a before, or I guess, a during shot.  With Sam building wall to the right, and my darling husband building a shelf/porch awning for my wall to the left.

In the back, you can see the before of the garage door wall.

This is a close up.  It looks a little sad here, but Beth is so good with displaying her great finds, that honestly, you didn’t even notice it before.  Still, I’m pretty happy with the streamlined look that the canvas drop cloth gave the room.  It was $10, and simply nailed to the wall above the garage door windows.  But, it let light shine in weirdly.  So I had to go behind it and nail cardboard over the panes of glass.

Here it is with fresh paint, back wall covered, wreaths in place, and a picket fence hung from the ceiling to cover some grids.

The wreaths are huge!  Sugarwings and Rich pulled the vines down from trees in our woods, and we wrangled them into shape together.  It was harder to do than you’d think, you really need to man handle those thick vines to convince them they want to be in a circle.

After the thickest pieces were twisted into each other, we secured them with a bit of wire.  Then, I started weaving smaller pieces in and out to fill in.  I don’t know if you can tell just how big these (very heavy) guys are, but the largest is about 4’tall.

Here is another in progress photo, before the wreaths and picket fence. My wall is gray.

And I am sooooo happy with how it turned out!  The porch columns give it a sense of structure, so I feel like I have a real spot of my own, not just a wall.  And the door on the front will give me space to hang jewelry that I have made.  

And the shelf!!!  

So much can fit onto that wonderful shelf!  If you don’t have much square footage, go UP.  Use the air space, right?

Here is a cleaned, but not finished pic of the spot.  Beth and I were going to work on it after her trip, but she got sick.  So Angie, our delightful neighbor, helped move furniture with me, and I rearranged things as much as I could.  Beth will bring in more before the sale and add to it quite a bit.

I had told myself  that I wouldn’t set up too much of her area, but hey- that’s the fun part!

So, I am guilty of doing a few displays… with the knowledge that she will probably remake them when she comes back.  But on the other hand, this way, she doesn’t have any pressure to come in if she isn’t up to it.  It’s okay as is, if she needs more time.

My wall needs more work, there are changes I want to make.  I’ve kept a black tub underneath the table for storage, and the lace on it stands out to much.  I need a plain, dark cloth over it so it disappears.  And I probably have too much hanging from the shelf.  It went from full to cluttered. 

For now, I’m headed to Florida for a rare, springtime sister trip.  My plan is to rest my poor head and recover from this concussion.  My doctor says I have been over doing it and while I hate to admit that, I agree.  I have felt awful throughout this whole escapade and look forward to a quiet week with dark glasses on to rest up.

A walk to see the horses

While our neighbors were out of town, we kept an eye on their five horses.

It was a pleasant walk down the road to visit, so we thought we’d take the doodles.   And yes, the dogs LOVED going there.

Too much so.

Molly will not be invited to go back with us, after coming home green and smelly.  I didn’t care for having her on a leash to get home. 

Along the way, we found this little guy in the highway.  Now he has been placed safely up by the pond.

We have come across turtles in the road a lot, but never a tiny baby before.  I guess they are just so little they are easy to miss.  

This memorial for Dusty was in the flowerbed of our friend’s home.  He was such a sweet horse. And his mama had lived with us for years in our old barn, so I kinda felt like I was his god mother, or an auntie of some kind.  He was such a mild mannered, good guy, that he was always a star in all of the local parades and Santa rode him for the holiday parade.  

Dusty will be missed.